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LEXINGTON — The last time “Jungle” Jack Hanna tramped the grounds at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was more than 20 years earlier. He hopes his next visit is sooner.

“I want to come back here in a couple of weeks when NASCAR comes,” the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said while serving as grand marshal for the Honda Indy 200 Sunday. “I told the owner he better bring 50 wreckers to the track for that one.”

If anyone at the track last weekend has any clue as to what to expect when the NASCAR Nationwide Series debuts Aug. 16 and 17 at Mid-Ohio for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200, it is four-time Izod IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti.

Franchitti spent an ill-fated season in NASCAR in 2008, getting one top five in the Nationwide Series at the road course at Watkins Glen.

“The cars are going to be a lot slower,” Franchitti said to laughs in the press conference. “I mean it will be challenging to drive for the drivers, trust me, but they will be a lot slower. I would think somewhere in the region of 20 seconds a lap, maybe more.”

IndyCars in qualifying trim will run a lap time of 65 seconds for an average speed of 124 mph around the 2.25-mile, 13-turn permanent road course.

“It’s going to be interesting. (Scott) Dixon and I were talking about it last night. They’re going to do the restarts here on the frontstraight at the pits. (Will Power) is going to talk with his Penske teammates and teach them how to go through the gravel trap there ’cause it’s going to be tough,” Franchitti said.

• HANNA, THE RACER: In the 1980s, Hanna dabbled in sports car racing, competing in the old Firehawk Series.

When asked what kind of racer he was, Hanna was blunt. “Terrible,” he said to laughs. “I did it for fun and to do something totally different from what I do.”

He joked that he once qualified 55th at a race that had 60 cars at Watkins Glen and that the closest he came to winning was finishing 20-something, setting up a celebration that no one else in the paddock could understand.

“I just went out there and had fun. I got caught waving to my dad one time and that wasn’t good,” he said.

He once competed in the old Columbus 500 in a support race.

“I braked too much and I had never done a downtown race before. I burned up the tires and the car caught on fire and that was the last race,” he said.

His dad was at that race and threatened to write him out of the will if he didn’t stop racing, and he gladly obliged.

• HANNA, THE ADVENTURIST: At a joint press conference with his godson and IndyCar driver Graham Rahal, both were asked who had the most dangerous job.

“I’d say Jack for sure,” Rahal said. “We were talking earlier about snakes and all these things. I can tell you I wouldn’t want to get near snakes or anything like that. I’d gladly drive every day than do that.”

Hanna said it comes down to respect. Rahal respects the cars and the competitors and knows the risks. In the wild, Hanna issues that same kind of respect to the animals he’s observing.

• HANNA, THE SPOKESPERSON: Hanna embraced his duties as grand marshal, bringing a baby snow leopard — one of the rarest animals in the world — as well as a kangaroo to Mid-Ohio. But mostly he loved the exposure such an appearance granted him through the media and the thousands in attendance.

“A visitor here is a our visitor at the Columbus Zoo,” Hanna said. “That’s why the Columbus Zoo was voted No. 1 in the country by USA Today several years in a row. That’s because we expose the zoo. We expose the zoo to people who might not want to go to the zoo here. Now they’ve seen a snow leopard here today and you can see the animals have the best care.

“The cross-promoting is invaluable to us.”

• MORE THAN A SPONSOR: Unlike a lot of drivers with sponsors, Ohio native and Firestone Indy Lights driver Zach Veach can attest to his. He actually used K12, the nation’s largest provider of online education programs for students.

“When I was in the seventh and eighth grade, even in go-karts, I was missing 50 to 60 days a year. Teachers really frowned upon that, so I had to find an alternative option. K12 let’s me learn wherever I’m at,” he said.

He start the program as a sophomore and graduated this year.

“I guess I’m an adult as they say. I’m out in the real world,” Veach said.

• FINALLY A RACE: After two weeks of rainouts, Hilltop Speedway in Millersburg got a card in the books Saturday night.

JR Gentry of Wooster earned his first win of the season in late models. Other winners were Jimmy Smith in modifieds, Brandon Gardner in street stocks, Terry Adkins in mini stocks, Cole Lillibridge in trucks and Tanner McLoughlin and Tristen Brown in mini wedges.

• NOT A RACE: Rain washed out the action at NAPA Wayne County Speedway on Friday. The second annual Summer Sizzler for 410 sprints will be Friday in Orrville with the second leg at Fremont Speedway on Saturday. Super stocks, modifieds, mini stocks and mini wedges also will be on the card as late models have Friday off.